screwing in joystick mounts....question about overlay

[hulkster]

i got some machine screws like everybody said and i started screwing them in before i put down my contact paper.  i mounted the joystick bottom and now the machine screw heads and sticking up (not much but a little) and my question is, how did you guys get the overlay (contact paper or whatever) not to have huge bumps in it while using machine screws?  i know some use carriage bolts and the bolt heads stick out the top of lexan and all that, but ive seen some that use machine screws and have nothing but the joystick showing...how did you do this?

[hyiu]

for the screwheads... you'll need to countersink the screwheads into the wood....

then it'll not show....

hmmm..... maybe someone can draw a pic to show....
(sorry... my drawing skills is next to nothing....)

[hulkster]

how do you countersink?  i saw a picture at home depot, but didnt pay attention to it.  

[grafixmonkey]

Do you have your joystick mounted to the top of the board or the underside of it?    I mounted mine to the top, and the only way to countersink the screws would be to shave off some joystick plastic.   So I'm going to just have screwheads showing.

(or I could drill little holes in the Lucite where the screws are, and they'd be recessed that way, but I dunno if I wanna do that.)

Don't screw your joy stick until the hole fits!!!
(sorry I couldn't resist)

[GamingGreg]

Some have drilled a shallow but slightly larger hole on the top of the control panel.  This way the carriage bolt (or screw head) is recessed down into the wood.

Something like this (If that makes sense)
------|           |--------
        |--|   |--|
            |   |
            |   |
______|   |_______

[hulkster]

yes that makes sense....so i could just put a larger bit on my drill and then just kinda shave the top part of the hole (heh) so the screw would fit flush?

[grafixmonkey]

yeah.  Or you can use a countersink drill bit that has the "larger drill" sort of built in to it.  

I used a dremel with a straight router bit on it, and just went from hole to hole shaving them all.   (man, there's just no hope for this topic to stay clean!)

[hulkster]

i know man, there are so many things you can say.  im 21 years old and all the inuendos are still funny.  just walking down the aisle of home depot and see a huge sign that says "NUTS" on it makes me laugh.